A truck reversed into me - have his details

Cianos

Hi
We were driving through a quiet residential road with a parked truck was taking up the left side of the road, going around the truck, the truck started reversing and ended up denting the wheel arch and panel. The driver preferred not to go through insurance so gave me his number, address and reg plate and asked me to send him the bill and he'd sort me out.

Its a Honda Civic, '95 and I'd actually prefer to keep the money than get it fixed, as I want to sell the car soon to go travelling.

How do I go about getting the money myself as opposed to getting a mechanics bill payed?

Can anyone recommend a mechanic to go to to get an estimate - I'm South Dublin (Rathmines).

Thanks

Seanie M

Hhmmm... I can't comment on whether what you are asking is right or not, but it does sound a little selfish to me. If it is a case that I was to sell the car with the damage regardless, then I would call up the truck driver, tell him this, and ask for what he thinks is a fair monetary contribution in compensation for my own pocket, and say no more of the situation. I'd haggle over it if it seemed too low for the repairs, but we would both have to be realistic.

Also, if he is smart, he will not only ask to see the bill of estimate AND work, but will pay the garage directly. If you bully him into paying you directly, he can, and does, have a right to refuse you. If you threaten to bring the insurance company into the equation, you now have a problem of not having a reported accident, so it gets far more sticky. I can't comment about witnesses etc but in my opinion, it would be more like a war of words, your word versus his.

I don't know if any of this is what you expected to hear from your request for thoughts!

Seanie.

JuliusFranco

almost an identical thing happened to me today aswell!

friggin van reversed into my right hand side while i was stationary!

he admitted to being totally in the wrong and i got his insurance details etc but he wants to look after it himself. i didn't go to the cops but i'm wondering should i?

also, i got an estimate from a local garage - panel beating and respraying the two doors will cost 450 + vat! is this a bit much?

if anyone knows a good repair place please post/pm

thanks

ps: later on, in the car park beside work, a car reversed out in from of me. i swerved and missed it by inches!

what is it with people reversing and not looking today!

lightening

Seanie M wrote:

If you bully him into paying you directly, he can, and does, have a right to refuse you.

Are you sure? Something similar happened to me. I was pretty young adn the guy was about 60 and was convinced I was going to just spend the money on myself. The gards told him that if I wanted to just take the money and not get the car fixed that was my choice. The fact is that he depreciated my car by so much by reversing in to it and I would take the hit when selling the car on if I chose not to fix it.

He wouldn't pay me, he wanted his garage to do the work and I wanted my garage to do the work. He was CONVINCED I was going "to spend my hard earned money on sh*te" (his words) eventually I called the insurance company and faxed them the statements that the Gard gave me and they sent me a check.

Rudolph Claus

How bad is the actual damage. Just tell him your local friendly panel beater is fixing it and you need E300. He`ll probably just give you it, i cant see him or anyone handing over much more in cash without seeing a receipt for the work so dont go asking for 500 or anything.

JuliusFranco

There's a nice dent in the driver's door and a bit on the passanger door. That said, the 450 + vat quote sounded expensive.

That's from the guy beside the dart station in Blackrock. Blackrock was never the cheapest of places to get anything done.

Was just talking to someone here in work and she reckoned this guy in ringsend (Tony Byrne, bhind the CYMS) in the man! I'll check it out tomorrow and let ye know.

I'm not interested in making a few bob at someone elses misfortune but If it costs 500€, that's what I'll demand. I think I better report it to the Guards, just to be on the safe side.

Del2005

Same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. Guy in a van drove into side of my car. Took all his details, he said he'd pay for the damage and not go through insurance. Got a price for the repair, was more then car was worth:( , and called him. Said the it wasn't worth my while getting car fixed up and asked what next. He paid me the value of my car and all happy:) .

Its a Honda Civic, '95 and I'd actually prefer to keep the money than get it fixed, as I want to sell the car soon to go travelling.

Just ring him and say that it isn't worth repairing and see what he says. As Lighting says it's not up to him how you spend the money and if you go through insurance they just send a check.

Cianos

The way I see it is that the damage to the car is going to have an effect on the resale value so there is nothing wrong with keeping the money for myself. Either way it doesnt make much difference to the truck driver. He was in the wrong for reversing into us without checking what was behind him, so he should pay for the damage that he caused...regardless of how I choose to use that payment.

Either way if he is paying up maybe its a lesson he wont forget, it could have been a buggy or an old lady he was reversing into

Wishbone Ash

Cianos wrote:

the damage to the car is going to have an effect on the resale value so there is nothing wrong with keeping the money for myself.

Totally correct Cianos - you are not obliged to get your car repaired at all.

When involved in an accident with an articulated truck, always take the registration from the tractor unit - not the trailer. Some careless/sloppy drivers do not have a registration displayed on the trailer or have a different plate on the trailer as they haven't removed the previous drawing unit's one (both illegal).
Some shady drivers will even give the trailer registration number if they think that they will get away with it (it's a different style of number on a similar plate and is usually located on the side).
Obviously, it's also a good idea to take the company details if the trailer/tractor unit have them.
You should always report any accident to the Gardai anyway regardless of how minor it is or whether or not it is going through the insurance.